IT is common to see on Karachi streets a car driven erratically, having trouble staying in the lane and unresponsive to outside environment, because the driver is using a cellphone. An interesting study was carried out by the Department of Psychology, University of Utah, in 2006. The study compared the performance of cellphone drivers with drivers who were intoxicated from ethanol with blood alcohol concentration at 0.08 per cent (weight/volume).

The study found that when drivers were conversing on either a handheld or hands-free cellphone, their braking reactions were delayed and they were involved in more traffic accidents than when they were not conversing on a cellphone. The researchers concluded that when driving conditions and time on task were controlled for, the impairments associated with using a cellphone while driving can be as profound as those associated with driving while drunk.

The Resolution 10 of the UN General Assembly (A/RES/64/255) of May 10, 2012 reads: “Encourages governments, public and private corporations, non-governmental organisations and multilateral organisations to take action, as appropriate, to discourage distractions in traffic, including texting while driving, which lead to increased morbidity and mortality owing to road crashes.”

Research indicate that mobile phone use while driving is associated with (a) increased ratings of mental workload; (b) a reduction in people’s perceptual visual fields by up to 10 per cent; (c) longer glances ahead, at the expense of other monitoring behaviours such as checking the mirrors and vehicle instruments; (d) poorer awareness of and response to the traffic situation, despite longer glances ahead; (e) slower detection of and response to hazards; and (f) a reduction in speed in an attempt to compensate the perceived impairment caused by using a phone.

Transport Research Laboratory of UK conducted a study in 2011 on the impact of smart phones’ use on driving. The research showed that when using a phone drivers were more likely to miss the reaction time stimuli; when the drivers did respond, reaction times to visual and auditory stimuli were found to increase by 30 per cent when using a phone to send and receive messages.

The study showed that car drivers were unable to maintain a central lane position and this resulted in an increased number of unintentional lane departures. It also showed that car drivers were unable to respond as quickly to a lead vehicle gradually changing speed, thus driving at a more variable time headway. The car drivers spend between 40 per cent and 60 per cent of the time looking down while using a phone to write or read messages, compared to about 10 per cent of the time looking down in the same sections of the control drive.

The study concluded that the driving was impaired when using a phone and this impairment is the result of three different types of distraction: having to concentrate on the smart phone task (cognitive), holding the phone (physical), and the significant increase in time spent looking at the phone (visual) in order to interact with it.

In New Jersey, USA, texting while walking is banned. The Sindh transport department should impose a ban on the use of mobile phones and should start awareness and educational programmes.

F. H. Mughal Karachi